Gluten Free Recipes

I purposely roasted a large quantity of butternut squash yesterday so I could use the leftovers for this quinoa dish. What I find very attractive about this gluten-free dish is the abundance of colors, thanks to the warm butternut squash and the bright Brussels sprouts. For a touch of richness in this otherwise healthy dish, I added fried cubes of paneer cheese.

You could enjoy this quinoa dish on its own if you're a vegetarian, or you could serve it, like I did, as a side dish with a poulet rôti (my favorite roasted chicken).

I had never heard of or tasted muhammara before until I met the folks at California Lavash. Every time I met with their team, I would hear how exquisite it tasted. In all seriousness, when you hear about a combination of walnuts, charred red bell peppers, fresh pomegranate seeds, lemon juice, garlic, mint, salt and pepper, it’s difficult to imagine how it couldn’t taste amazing!

To thicken the texture of the dip, I added bread and extra virgin olive oil, and balanced the flavors with dates, a hint of ground cumin and red chili powder. You could use it as a dip served with toasted pita bread or cucumber and celery sticks but in my case, I used it as a spread for a roasted lamb sandwich. It was delicious!

I usually pair coconut soup with seafood. To ensure that the rest of the family could share a similar meal with me, I made scallop-lookalike sweet potato out of a Vietnamese root vegetable called khoai tu. It resembles sugar cane but once cooked, it's starchy with a subtle sweetness. I cut it into the dimension of sea scallops and pan-fried them. Once the fragrant coconut broth is ready, you just need to add the wonderful looking vegetarian "scallops".

Khoai từ has been available at the Asian market this season but it's a little pricey. I think this would make a fabulous dish for you to serve if you celebrate the Vietnamese New Year. I'll try to have a vegetarian diet the days before and after New Year's Day but since it isn't time for the festivities just yet, I indulged in the real thing with fresh, large and sumptuous sea scallops.

This is my interpretation of mash ki dal, which is traditionally a lentil dish made from tikki dal. For this version, I prepared it with pearled barley, which I think has a marvelous texture that works well for the dish. I soaked the barley overnight so the grains were fully hydrated.

The rest of the preparation consists of a few coarsely chopped tomatoes, dried red chiles, thinly sliced ginger and chopped coriander. It's nutritious, tasty and not that complicated. Perfect for our family's dinner meal!

I'll be in Los Angeles this weekend sharing samples from my latest cookbook, Banh Mi, at a pre-party for the Golden Globes. Stay tuned for pictures!

Our lovely neighbor Tom is so sweet; he always brings us lemons from his brother's garden. I've made countless lemon desserts with them in the past, so this time I thought I could use them in a savory dish.

I prepared a lemon dressing that I used both as marinade for jumbo shrimp and as vinaigrette for celery, spinach, cucumber, carrot and French green bean salad.

If you want to turn a plain Jane seafood salad into a gorgeous salad course, I recommend using a mini dessert bowl and "hanging" the shrimp off the rim of the glass and placing the salad at the bottom of each bowl.